Tag Archives: Kickstarter

For the last few weeks, I’ve been missing from the blog world, because I’ve been devoting quite a bit of time to running a Kickstarter campaign for my new album project. It took up a lot of my attention, but it was worth it! Not just because it funded successfully, but also because I learned some things about myself and the family I have around me.

By nature, I’m an introvert who likes to be liked. I love being around people, but I’m probably going to be pretty quiet while more gregarious people carry the conversation. I’m careful of the words I choose, and have a very hard time speaking off the cuff. All in all, I’d rather write, and be able to get my thoughts down more thoughtfully.

Before taking this challenge on, I had to know that God was behind the idea. For me, “what is God saying to me and what am I going to do about it?” are the starting points. Because without knowing it is first in God’s mind, the hurdles would be insurmountable. I knew this was God’s prompt. And this had been confirmed by those closest to me and my community of believers.

There were a couple of hurdles to jump on the way to putting my project on Kickstarter. The first one was feeling okay about asking people to join in as backers. This was a big hurdle for me. It felt embarrassing to ask people to support my project with their money. I would rather have the money miraculously drop from heaven. But I knew too, that having the support and backing of others would fuel the confidence I needed to approach the project. And I knew this was a new frontier in humility for me. Since God had said to go for it, this was part of my growth.

This is where investment in the Five Capitals really renovated my thinking. The capitals are, in ascending order of importance; financial, intellectual, physical, relational and spiritual. The more my wife and I prayed about the project, and the more people encouraged us on, I realized there was a great deal of relational and spiritual capital laid up for me in this geographic place where I’ve lived and worked for all these years. People really wanted to help out! They were actually excited to join with me in this project. They weren’t annoyed that I was asking for their help, because they could see the Kingdom investment they were making. I received so many encouraging emails and messages from so many people, it gave me a stronger resolve to go confidently into what God had shown me to do. I can’t tell you how much this meant to me. To have people put into words their support and share ways I had had input into their lives was both humbling and a huge blessing.

This came in handy as the campaign got off to a very slow start. But being sure this was God’s leading, I knew I was to forge ahead. I wasn’t guaranteed the success of the campaign, but I knew God was in the process. And in that I could be at peace.

The campaign was set for 25 days, and if you know how this kind of thing works, it has a deadline. And either you reach goal and receive the funding, or you don’t reach your goal and you receive nothing. It’s an all or nothing situation. So after 11 days, I had only 6%, then……

One of the most encouraging comments came from a fellow pastor and good friend who I respect in our area. He said that I had no idea of the relational and spiritual capital I had built up over the years. That hit me hard and I knew it was true. What I discovered through this Kickstarter process is that years of following Christ, walking faithfully, loving others, and investing in the worship life in our valley had produced equity that I could draw from. There was an exponential return.

By day 22 the project was fully funded and went on to exceed the goal. And I am looking forward to sharing the lyrics and music that God’s put in me to share. There is more work ahead to see this project through to completion. But I am looking forward to the process.